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Harvard Management Company has not published its annual climate report six months after its expected release, and officials won’t say whether Harvard will continue providing annual updates on its progress in achieving net-zero endowment emissions by 2050.

The report, released every year since 2021, includes updates on the endowment’s climate-related investments, HMC’s carbon-neutral operations, and a holistic net-zero assessment. While HMC has provided an update on its emission reduction progress in either February or March each year, the 2025 report has not come out.

“HMC remains committed to achieving a net zero portfolio by 2050 and we look forward to providing an update on our progress in due course,” HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan wrote in a statement, declining to comment on the delay.

In April, McKiernan wrote that he was “not sure if there’s a date set yet” in response to a request for comment on the initial delay from The Crimson.

Harvard’s endowment was the first in the U.S. to commit to carbon neutrality, and its pledge reflected the timeline determined by the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate treaty adopted in 2015. HMC made its commitment in 2020, months after the Trump administration announced intent to withdraw from the accord.

In his second term, President Donald J. Trump withdrew a second time from the Paris Agreement, gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s research arm, and called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetuated” in a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday.

Trump is also pursuing an extending campaign to punish Harvard financially for its response to antisemitism on campus. In addition to a new 8 percent endowment tax, Harvard and the White House are currently engaged in a legal battle over international student enrollment and billions in federal funding.

Climate advocates opposed to HMC’s inaction around the climate report claimed that it fits a larger trend of the University making several quiet concessions to the White House, even as it continues to battle the administration on legal and financial grounds.

Jasmine N. Wynn ’27, the co-founder of Harvard’s Sunrise Movement — formerly known as Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard—called HMC’s inaction “shameful” but unsurprising in a statement.

“HMC not releasing their climate report is disappointing, but I can’t say I’m surprised given larger rollbacks on policies deemed to be more progressive across Harvard’s schools,” Wynn, a member of The Crimson’s Editorial Board, wrote.

“Transparency is a bare minimum for any institution and it is shameful that Harvard is obscuring their decisions for likely political reasons,” she added.

But James K. Hammitt ’78, an environmental economics professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health, said the report had become less important in the face of other financial pressures.

“Given everything else going on at Harvard and in the world, even the climate world, the lack of a report this year does not seem too important,” Hammitt wrote.

When Harvard first pledged to enact a carbon-neutral investment portfolio, then-University President Lawrence S. Bacow described climate change as “a defining issue of our time.”

Citing a commitment to “prepare for and accelerate the necessary transition to a fossil fuel-free economy,” in its announcement, HMC promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “across the value chain.”

Over the next four years, HMC reported incremental progress toward its 2050 net-zero goal in its annual reports. Its 2024 Climate Report — covering the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023—outlined a continued decline in legacy fossil-fuel holdings to below two percent of the endowment and a modest increase in “climate transition” investments to just over one percent.

HMC linked partnerships with CDP, an international nonprofit that pushes companies to disclose climate data; Ceres, a coalition advocating for sustainable business practices; and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, which develops industry-specific sustainability reporting standards. HMC also aligned with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and Climate Action 100+, a global investor network pressing the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to take action on climate change.

All of HMC’s publicly listed partners and collaborators on past reports declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment on whether HMC had contacted them regarding the 2025 report.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.